Mass. Republicans file legislation to allow local, state police to comply with ICE detainer requests
Under an ordinance known as the
by federal officials, unless they're also facing a warrant for a serious crime.
A
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But Republicans on Beacon Hill hope to change that, filing at least two bills that would allow local and state officials to detain someone for an extended period of time if they are the subject of an ICE detainer request.
The legislation is part of a broader set of immigration-related proposals the party has unveiled this month, including a push to change the state's Right to Shelter law, limits on shelter stays, and an audit of the shelter system.
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'These bills are not intended to facilitate any kind of widespread deportation or mass deportation,' Tarr said. 'These are intended to relate to those folks who have in some ways transgressed the law or are suspected of behavior that is violent and dangerous.'
Four other lawmakers have also signed on as co-sponsors of the bill, which Jones said is almost
'This isn't some broad net; this is sort of focused on the headline-grabbing, most offensive cases that even the most, I would think, even the most progressive, left-leaning, open border-type person would' be able to support, he said.
The legislation would not require local and state law enforcement
officials to comply with ICE detainer requests, but would give them the option, he said.
The measure would not conflict with the SJC ruling, he added.
The
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Another bill, filed by state Representative Michael Soter, a Republican from Bellingham, reaches further. It would allow local and state authorities to keep anyone who is the subject of an ICE detainer request in custody for an additional 36 hours. At least 11 lawmakers have signed on as co-sponsors, as well as the sheriffs of Worcester and Plymouth counties.
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Soter called the measure 'an extra tool in the tool shed,' and a way to close what he described as
a 'loophole' from the 2017 court decision.
'It's something very common sense that I think we all can agree on,' Soter said. 'It would be safer for ICE to detain these folks in a secure setting, versus out in the community, where [raids] have its risks for everybody, people who live in the community, plus our law enforcement.'
He also argued it would allow ICE to be held accountable if federal authorities fail to pick up a subject of a detainer request before the time extension runs out.
But Sarang Sekhavat, chief of staff at the
'This [amounts to] arrest without probable cause,' Sekhavat said. If a person has a criminal history, 'Let the police deal with it, let the criminal courts deal with it, let people serve their time like everybody else does. But to then further criminalize them by arresting folks for civil charges, it's not what this country was founded on.'
Boston and Massachusetts leaders, including Wu and Governor Maura Healey, have expressed
Wu often points to
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Sekhavat said the bills filed by Massachusetts Republicans come as immigrants across the country are already feeling a greater sense of fear due to the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration enforcement.
'We're definitely seeing a huge uptick in Xenophobia, we're seeing a huge uptick, frankly, in just straight up racism,' he said. 'It's surprising and disappointing in a country that was built as a nation of immigrants.'
With Democrats holding super majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, the measures would seem to have a slim chance of passage.
Still, Jones was cautiously optimistic about the prospect of rallying bipartisan support for his bill. He pointed to recent action by Healey to restrict eligibility for the state shelter system, limit lengths of stays, and order full criminal background checks on all people currently in the system.
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The state has
'One need look no further than the corner office to see a Democrat that's kind of moved their position on the overall issue relative to the migrant crisis,' Jones said. 'I'm always hopeful that maybe there's a shifting paradigm, and I think this is ... I would argue, a very reasonable, very conservative approach, modest approach to trying to address some of the worst actors out there.'
A spokesperson for state Senate President Karen Spilka's office did not explicitly express whether she would support the legislation, saying the Senate reviews all newly filed bills through the committee process.
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'The vast majority of immigrants are hardworking, taxpaying, law abiding contributors to their communities, and the Senate President denounces any attempt to make those residents feel afraid,' said Spilka's spokesperson Gray Milkowski in a statement.
Governor Maura Healey's office, state House Speaker Ron Mariano, Wu's office, and representatives from the Boston Police Department and ICE Boston did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Niki Griswold can be reached at
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Miami Herald
an hour ago
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No Kings protests fanned out across South Florida and the country Saturday as thousands of people demonstrated against President Donald Trump's policies on his 79th birthday and the day of a military parade in Washington. Surrounded by a heavy police presence, the 'No Kings' protesters were passionate but peaceful. As people took to the streets, reports came in that two Democratic lawmakers were shot in Minnesota in what is being described as political violence. More than 70 official rallies unfolded across Florida, including Miami, Miami Beach, Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Keys. The demonstrations, about 2,000 nationwide, hit the streets after a federal crackdown on protesters in Los Angeles who were marching in response to the nation's new stringent immigration policies and ICE raids. MORE: Live updates: Anti-Trump protests start in South Florida. 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I know how it feels when they start to fight against the free press, and I don't want that to happen here in the United States,' Rod said. Rod emphasized that he would not flee again. 'I escaped once from Cuba. I'm not going to escape from the United States. I'm going to fight to the end.' While he said he respects traditional conservative values, what he sees now goes beyond ideology. 'This is pure and absolute fascism, textbook fascism,' he said. 'Not in their end stages or in their final stages — this is how it begins.' Miami Beach About 250 people carrying signs with slogans such as, 'This is the government our founders warned us about,' streamed into Pride Park in Miami Beach and formed a circle adjacent to a dozen police vehicles surrounding the park. Officers, dressed in riot gear, observed. James Fabiano, a self-employed 57-year-old, stepped into the circle to address the crowd. He was dressed in a black shirt with a rainbow-colored American flag and a paper Burger King crown painted over to read, 'No Kings.' 'When I grew up, I paid attention in social studies,' Fabiano said, recounting how, as a child, he was moved by the stories of Holocaust survivors he grew up around in New York. 'I see the same thing happening in my country in 2025,' he said. Fabiano said he moved from Brooklyn to Miami Beach in 1985, when he was 17, enamored with a feeling of safety and community he felt here as a gay man. 'I could walk around in eyeliner and Daisy Dukes with beach blond hair and nobody attacked me, I was free,' he said. 'The immigrant community were loving and accepting; there was no judgment.' Broadcasts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounding up immigrants across the country incensed Fabiano and compelled him to rally. 'I came to protest Trump, the Republicans, the MAGA supporters, to me they're no different from Nazis,' Fabiano said. Speakers took to a megaphone to share concerns about what they see as the Trump administration's divisive rhetoric, immigration policy and cutbacks to government agencies. Monica Tracy, a 67-year-old retired real estate agent, organized the No Kings rally in Miami Beach. 'We were founded as a country — we all learned in grade school — founded in protest to King George,' Tracy said. 'Our founding principle is that we didn't want a king, and now we have one.' Tracy's motivation to organize the Miami Beach rally was spurred by the administration's cutbacks to governmental agencies that monitor health and the environment. Her growing involvement in local environmental, political and community organizations flourished after she retired, she said. 'The destruction of government agencies that do the work of making our country a good place, like the EPA, the NIH, the CDC,' she cited. 'Young people don't know what they have, and maybe they won't — until they lose it,' Tracy said, casting her gaze around the morning crowd. 'I don't know why they're not out there as much, it's the older people that are fighting.' Not everyone agreed. A counter-demonstrator interjected, shouting that the country could not afford to support immigrants who enter the country illegally. Within seconds, the crowd drowned him out with boos and chants of 'no kings.' Three police officers escorted the counter-demonstrator away, peacefully, along the sidewalk. Afterward, demonstrators applauded and chanted 'no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.' 'Authoritarianism, it's not on the way, we're there now,' Tracy said. Fort Lauderdale Around 500 people attended the No Kings Protest along A1A and Sunrise Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Dozens more cars passing along loudly honked their horns in support. Hector Miranda, 57, has never protested before. A laid-back, 'couch supporter' is how he says he's chosen to fight for the causes he believes in. However, seeing the fear in his co-workers' and friends' eyes who are vastly undocumented spurred him to don a gray shirt with a phrase so divisive those same migrants pleaded with him to keep it locked away — 'I'm an illegal immigrant.' 'I never felt this strongly about anything to come out and protest,' Miranda said. 'It was the fear I saw in the people I work with.' Miranda, born in New Jersey and living in South Florida for the last 15 years, may not be an illegal immigrant but he felt he represented all the undocumented people he knew in the hospitality industry who wanted to join the No Kings Protest but couldn't risk being thrown in a jail cell. 'I know the last time Trump was elected people were p-----, but nothing like this,' he said. 'But this is different, we need to be out here now.' American, Venezuelan, LGBTQ and anti-Trump flags flew high and waved under the near-blistering 90-degree summer heat. Some signs read 'No Kings in America'; 'No Cons, No Clowns, No Kings'; 'Hands off Our Democracy.' Others depicted pictures of guillotines, shattered crowns and Trump in prison clothes. Charlene Burke, 60, was raised by generations of American soldiers, she said. Her father served in a tank division during the Cold War. Her Uncle Bill slugged through European trenches, while her grandfather served as military police during the China-Burma-India campaign during World War II. She has relatives who are still in active service, she said. She proudly held a poster that urged veterans to call a hotline, which she listed, along with spurring on fellow protesters by leading dozens to chant, 'This what democracy looks like.' 'I'm here to support all the protesters, support our right to protest peacefully, to assemble and just to say that we need to impeach Donald Trump, I've had enough,' she said. The president's lack of aid to those who have served the United States is abhorrent, Burke said. 'All veterans deserved to be respected and to have them denigrated and their benefits stripped is an absolute disgrace,' Burke said. 'The lack of continuity of care for the service that the VA provides them is falling short, bad, and these people need help, and they're not getting it.' Organizing the protests Plenty of behind-the-scenes work went into organizing the downtown Miami protest, said Pacheco, co-chair of Indivisible Miami, a progressive grassroots movement that co-sponsored the demonstration along with the 50501 Movement. According to Pacheco, 50, clad in a pink flower dress for the protest, planning for the downtown Miami protest had been underway for about a month. Indivisible Miami has been active since February. Pacheco, who was born in Angola and has lived in Miami Beach for 22 years, has long been involved in activism. A former Army veteran, she ran for Florida State Senate in 2022 against Sen. Ileana Garcia, the co-founder of 'Latinas for Trump.' Miami Republican Sen. Garcia broke ranks by condemning Trump's mass-deportation campaign and immigration enforcement actions as 'unacceptable and inhumane' last week. 'This is not what we voted for,' Garcia said in a statement. Monica Tracy, who organized the No Kings rally in Miami Beach, said she chose Pride Park's location near the Convention Center for its convenience. 'I didn't want to try to get downtown,' she said, referring to the downtown Miami protest. Tracy said it took two weeks to gain approval through the website to organize the rallying site. Charmelle Gambill, a protest organizer working with Hope and Action Indivisible to arrange the Fort Lauderdale No Kings protest, emphasized that a peaceful and safe rally was a must. 'We appreciate everyone who's come out, and it's been peaceful and non-violent which we just wanted to stress,' Gambill said from the protest.
